We reprint the speeches of the Nizhni-Novgorod workers
from the lithographed leaflet issued by the Nizhni-Novgorod
Committee of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party.
To add anything to these speeches would only mean
weakening the impression created by this ingenuous account of the
workers’ misery, of the growing indignation among them
and of their readiness to fight. It is now our duty to make
every effort to have these speeches read by tens of thousands
of Russian workers. The example of Zalomov, Bykov,
Samylin, Mikhailov and their comrades, who courageously
stood up in court for their fighting call: “Down with the
autocracy!”, will inspire the whole working class of Russia
to equally heroic and resolute struggle for the freedom of
the whole people, and the freedom of steady working-class
advance to the bright socialist future.

Notes

[1]Speeches in the tsarist court were delivered on October 28–31
(November 10–13), 1902, by P. A. Zalomov, A. I. Bykov, M. I.
Samylin and a number of other workers from Sormovo and
Nizhni-Novgorod who were put on trial for their participation in the
demonstrations on May 1 and 5 (14 and 18), 1902. Out of 23
organisers and leaders of the demonstration who had been arrested,
13 were sentenced to exile in Siberia for life. The speeches were
initially published by the Nizhni-Novgorod Committee of the
R.S.D.L.P. as leaflets, and then reprinted in Iskra No. 29 on
December 1, 1902, under the title “Nizhni-Novgorod Workers
on Trial”, with a preface by Lenin.

For Lenin’s assessment of their behaviour at the trial see
present edition, Vol. 6, pp. 282–83.